Random Gut Biome, Resistant Starch, Vivid Dreams and Diabetes Roundup

Shortly, I’m headed out camping for the weekend in the Sacramento River Delta with family, so thought I’d pop up some random things for you to check out over the next couple of days.

Let’s begin with notable books. I’ve not read these cover-cover, but skimmed and poked around in them enough to know that 1) they’re worthy reads, and 2) it’s a whole new beginning in terms of books on the gut biome and related things like prebiotics and probiotics…and that the one I and my collaborators are laboring over will be the best and most complete, guaranteed.

A critically important and startling look at the harmful effects of overusing antibiotics, from the field’s leading expert.

Tracing one scientist’s journey toward understanding the crucial importance of the microbiome, this revolutionary book will take readers to the forefront of trail-blazing research while revealing the damage that overuse of antibiotics is doing to our health: contributing to the rise of obesity, asthma, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer. In Missing Microbes, Dr. Martin Blaser invites us into the wilds of the human microbiome where for hundreds of thousands of years bacterial and human cells have existed in a peaceful symbiosis that is responsible for the health and equilibrium of our body. Now, this invisible eden is being irrevocably damaged by some of our most revered medical advances—antibiotics—threatening the extinction of our irreplaceable microbes with terrible health consequences. Taking us into both the lab and deep into the fields where these troubling effects can be witnessed firsthand, Blaser not only provides cutting edge evidence for the adverse effects of antibiotics, he tells us what we can do to avoid even more catastrophic health problems in the future.

From asthma to Crohn’s disease, everyone knows someone who suffers from an allergic or autoimmune disorder. And if it appears that the prevalence of these maladies has increased recently, that’s because it has—to levels never before seen in human history. These days no fewer than one in five—and likely more—Americans suffers from one of these ailments. We seem newly, and bafflingly, vulnerable to immune system malfunction. Why? One possibility is that we have systematically cleaned ourselves to illness; this belief challenges deeply entrenched notions about the value of societal hygiene and the harmful nature of microbes. Yet scientists investigating the rampant immune dysfunction in the developed world have inevitably arrived at this conclusion. To address this global “epidemic of absence,” they must restore the human ecosystem.

This groundbreaking book explores the promising but controversial “worm therapy”—deliberate infection with parasitic worms—in development to treat autoimmune disease. It explains why farmers’ children so rarely get hay fever, why allergy is less prevalent in former Eastern Bloc countries, and how one cancer-causing bacterium may be good for us. It probes the link between autism and a dysfunctional immune system. It investigates the newly apparent fetal origins of allergic disease—that a mother’s inflammatory response imprints on her unborn child, tipping the scales toward allergy.

An Epidemic of Absence is a brilliant, cutting-edge exploration of the dramatic rise of allergic and autoimmune diseases and the controversial, potentially groundbreaking therapies that scientists are developing to correct these disorders.

~ While some of you may know that collaborator Tim Steele and I did a totally fun (lots of lafs: fart jokes, poo and fecal transplant jokes, etc.) recording the other day with Dave Asprey for an upcoming vidcast/podcast on Resistant Starch, primarily, he previously did a show with my other collaborator and long time friend—going back to 2008—”Dr. BG (link removed),” now fully outed as Grace Liu, PharmD. There’s a decent amount of “chop” in the audio which they’re working on re-recording for the iTunes podcast version, but in the meantime, here’s the transcript.

Your daughter has been sick for more than four years with a severe autoimmune disease that has left her colon raw with bloody ulcers. After multiple doctors and drugs have failed, you are frantic for her to get better. Then you send her disease into remission, virtually overnight, with a single act of love. “Who wouldn’t do that for their daughter?” you say. It’s like a miracle, you say. “An overnight magic wand.”

You’ve agreed to do it again – twice – for strangers. You’ve seen first-hand how effective it can be and you felt so badly for the patients and their families. Had you donated blood or plasma, no one would blink. But this? You can’t tell anyone else about this because of how they might react.

Increased intake of dietary carbohydrate that is fermented in the colon by the microbiota has been reported to decrease body weight, although the mechanism remains unclear. Here we use in vivo11C-acetate and PET-CT scanning to show that colonic acetate crosses the blood–brain barrier and is taken up by the brain. Intraperitoneal acetate results in appetite suppression and hypothalamic neuronal activation patterning. We also show that acetate administration is associated with activation of acetyl-CoA carboxylase and changes in the expression profiles of regulatory neuropeptides that favour appetite suppression. Furthermore, we demonstrate through 13C high-resolution magic-angle-spinning that 13C acetate from fermentation of 13C-labelled carbohydrate in the colon increases hypothalamic 13C acetate above baseline levels. Hypothalamic 13C acetate regionally increases the 13C labelling of the glutamate–glutamine and GABA neuroglial cycles, with hypothalamic 13C lactate reaching higher levels than the ‘remaining brain’. These observations suggest that acetate has a direct role in central appetite regulation.

Just as in butter eating folks, I doubt vinegar dousing folks are getting any more acetic acid to their colons as the former are getting butyric acid to theirs. It requires a digestion resistant substrate (by which the colonic bacteria then produce both as their “shit”) such as resistant starch and other fermentable fibers found primarily in plants. Sorry. Don’t shoot the messenger.

~ Do you want totally weird ass dreams? Well, Adel is a good communicator on that level (hint: resistant starch).

…She graciously tweeted me the other day to thank me for the work here, and I’m delighted to share her experiences and observations with you.

~ Alright, let me conclude with a family update. I’ll be seeing mom & dad in a few hours from now at camp, so it’s apropos, methinks.

Way way back, like 2008 and 9ish, I was all up in arms about how my Type 2 Diabetic mom was doing so well on very low carb Paleo. The honeymoon was short lived. She lives with fasting BG in the 160-180 range, now, even keeping very strict at 73-yoa. No amputations, and I got her eyes. I barely need reading glasses only, at 53. I think that was probably the point she took them up, and has never had actual corrective lenses.

…Anyway, about a week ago I get an email from dad. Back up. In that same 2008/9 timeframe, as my dad (now 76) was alarmed that his fasting glucose was so high. I had no idea of physiological insulin resistance at the time. It was rather embarrassing. On the other hand, he lost a lot of weight, was active, and felt good. So, he was at about 130 FBG. He sent me a chart the other day, all measurements from his regular provider checkups and he’s now at an FBG of about 100.

First time in YEARS, no insulin today. My levels have been so much better with the starch and recently I started taking the Amla and they have been going down. With the lower bg levels and less insulin levels I have started to lose weight. Only a few pounds but it’s something. I am happy.

Thank you.

Want to talk to you about probiotics this weekend and which one I should be taking.

Mom

She followed up when Beatrice congratulated her.

No insulin yesterday. This morning 101. Never ever had figures like this in morning. They were always high even with insulin at night.

…I immediately sent her all my Amazon Associates links. Click it. Grab that cookie, give me a piece! It’s only all of what I’m about. Peddling stuff, creating a niche fad, etc.

Yep, it’s all just a fad. That’s what literally dozens of American LC Diet Gurus who failed both of my parents would have you believe. “Their carbs aren’t low enough.” “They’re cheating.” Oh, they’re cheating, eh (euphemism for living!)? Well, probably, but it looks like RS, Amla, and maybe SBO probiotics covers that?

So that’s bad? Is LC a religion? Oh, yes, it is. It’s Hezbollah, as certainly as Vegan is Shiite. Two sides of the same coin, dime’s worth of difference.

Darm mit Charme (“Charming Bowels”) – which has sat atop the German paperback charts for the last eight weeks and shifted more than 200,000 copies in the process – may deal with defecation, constipation and other bowel movements, but its message is far from flippant: our gastrointestinal tract is not only the body’s most under-appreciated organ, but “the brain’s most important adviser”.

In the book, which was published in Germany in March and whose UK rights have already been bought by Scribe, Enders argues that we are unduly proud of the complex achievements of our brain and heart, while regarding our bowels as little more than a shameful tube that produces “small brown heaps and farting noises”.

Here’s a 12-minute talk she did (in German), but some of my readers translated it and subtitled the video.

The world is changing dramatically and rapidly and I understand and embrace that. I fart in the general direction of all who don’t.

To write a book is one thing, the PR and marketing afterwards is another. This young lady (Giulia Enders) sort of reversed the process with the above linked presentation from 2012 – so funny. Looking forward to The Book by FTA Team, since The Three Collaborators are doing something similar here – exploring, sharing, educating and entertaining :-)

the german title of the book, “darm mit charme” (a rhyme, obviously), can also be interpreted as:

(the subject of) intestines (presented to you) with charm – i.e in a charming way.

and judging from the picture and the youtube video (which does have a lengthy section on the workings of the anus – see also the article richard linked to) giulia enders seems to be a very charming young lady indeed, which also explains why they put her picture right smack on the front cover of the book:

the woman definitely has got guts: from now on her face will be forever linked to the bowel, its movements, and the anus. but quite appropriately so, for as she herself points out in her prize wining (and really funny) science slam talk:

“when we were little embryological heaps of cells in the womb there wasn’t much of a face – there was just the front opening of the intestinal tube.”

(while speaking about the connection of the gut and emotions – and why we don’t have complete control over the latter being expressed on the face.)

by the way, gabkad: it seems that giulia enders was born 1990 in mannheim, a town in the northwestern corner of baden-würtemberg. some people claim that her last name is a pun on the greek word for bowels, έντερα (pronounced ENdera in modern greek), but that seems rather far fetched to me.

I am working on English subtitles on this video, for the pleasure of non-german FTA readers, just because it is so funny. Seems you could understand exactly the part I missed. Can you help me with the subtitles – crowdsourced subtitling platform Amara?

(I tried my best so far, was just working on the las part, but neither English nor German is my native language, so …).

Still working on it, it needs some finishing touches and soon it will be almost perfect (thanks to The iz @ oz, the orthografascist (his word, not mine!) commenter from above who provided most of the text in both languages).
Sluggish bee has not survived though, it will soon be lying there dead, resting its eternal sleep gently deluged in captions.

@Gemma
Do you mean to say there are people out there, able to translate from German to English and vice versa, just for the fun (or little immediate reward) of it? Ha. We founded an association for the advancement of scientific research on epilepsy, just a couple days ago. Things we put into practice since more than one year now has been a (the) game changer. We want to kick medical research into high gear about what has been known scientifically for decades, – many, no exaggeration. Here is a link and an excerpt from science: “5% CO2 is a potent, fast acting inhalation anticonvulsant”
Auszug:
“5% CO2 has a fast and potent anticonvulsant action. The present data suggest that medical carbogen with 5% CO2 can be used for acute treatment to suppress seizures in epilepsy patients.”ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3017646/
Now – we need to translate 9 pages of association rules into English. Not asking, no, just any ideas of how to accomplish this? Peace.

Interesting story on epilepsy.
Well, translating legal documents needs some know-how, I think, I would definitely not be qualified for that, sorry. Isn’t there anybody in your community willing/able to do it?

It definitely looks like the gut has to be at fault for all of the autoimmune diseases that we are seeing today. But what about us late comers? Assuming that years of terrible diet caused a leaky gut and massive killoff of the gut flora, does that mean that it will take many more years to recover? If we caused the condition only through diet (i.e. we never abused antibiotics, OTC medicines, and never used steroids) does that mean that we can rectify the gut condition entirely through diet, or are additional supplements needed?

What about food intolerances, especially nightshade vegetables and gluten? Which came first, gut damage or nightshade/gluten abuse? And by correcting the gut state, should things like nightshades and gluten become more tolderable?

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Richard, don’t leave until you have answered all of your mom”s questions. I had tears in my eyes reading her emails to you. I am so happy they are doing better. I agree that the gut is the answer to all. I will check out those two books. This is important stuff. Have a great week end. Did you ever pick up the little dog? I hope so, he was awful cute.

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I think there is hope for everyone who’s gut has not been permanently ruined with diverticula or surgically altered. Everyone who is eating a fermentable fiber deficient diet is just biding their time until they end up with an AI disease or serious gut/health issues.

Gut bugs can be restored through prebiotics and probiotics and, soon, fecal transplants.

I really don’t think it takes a whole lot of effort to eat right, either. A pretty good paleo diet with a focus on RS and inulin, veggies and some fruit every day.

I think our book will be eye-opening for everyone, even readers of FTA. We’ve been updating things I wrote in December using 2013 studies with studies written in 2014. It’s unbelievable what is happening with antibiotics and antibiotic resistance. The new science on probiotics and their use against disease and metabolic issues is really heating up as well.

I was concerned about the number of ‘gut’ books on the market, but most of them get it wrong, recommending diets that eliminate the very food we require. I think our book will be unique in this regard and it lays down a good framework for others to build on in the future.

We’ve been slowly chipping away at our gut health for thousands of years, but the last 50- 100 have been particularly devastating.

Just a few tweaks, that most of you already know, and we turn around decades of gut abuse.

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May 2014 news: A randomized trial of fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in ulcerative colitis provoked more questions than answers. More research needed :-)
Interestingly, this article describes a case of a success in a PLACEBO-treated patient who improved dramatically after open-label FMT despite a 20-year history of severe, refractory ulcerative colitis!

Just because someone looks lean and mean doesn’t mean they have a great gut microbiota. Donors will have to be selected based on a thorough sampling. Even babies might not be suitable donors. Poop banks are the way to go, but you know they will be regulated to death.

These-stone age tribes are for sure a reservoir of long-lost, unexplored microbiomes. But, they have lived separated from us by a thousand years of evolution, their mitochondrial DNA is very different, their microbiomes are results of symbiosis within their unique environmental conditions, real ancestral diet included. You would be surprised receiving via such fecal transplant some unpleasant nastiness, such as Treponema, co-habitating peacefully with the Hadza.
And do not forget, their adults are healthy and free of western diseases, but it is only those that survive to adulthood ( 20% of their children die young). Nothing is for free.

Just a brief note to let you know that I have been following your RS posts and how amazing that it is you have brought this to the forefront.

One thing that I have noted is something that I have not seen mentioned…something I call “the clean break”. Whenever I used to take a crap, I would need half a roll of toilet paper. It was like trying to empty a jar of peanut butter with toilet tissue. Now I have “the clean break”. When I go to wipe…nothing there…clean as a whistle. This is something I haven’t experienced since I was 10 years old.

Can’t believe I posted this in a public forum, but there you go.

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Also my 30 year old son, raised on antibiotics and lactose intolerant. I got him an American Gut test kit and was explaining how to take a swab sample off used toilet paper, he says, ‘but Dad, since I started your potato starch I don’t even need toilet paper’.

Where I work, my coworkers would complain because the lavatory was ‘off limits’ for at least an hour after I used it. Housekeepers HATED me. Looked like an atomic fecal bomb went off in the toilet and needed so much paper I’d have to flush three times.

Wow! Same story here, although it has only been a week at 2T of PS that has produced results. Tried vlc, digestive enzymes, probiotics without prebiotics…no changes except a course of cipro for an unrelated infection.

That’s great news, Dr. McGuff! Thanks for having the courage to publicly write something positive about resistant starch and the TMI. It’s especially impactful coming from one of the more influential and respected “low carb doctors.”

Funny, I thought the scientific terminology was actually “Clean Clip.” In any event, after doing the potato starch for several months, 3-4 Tbsp per day, I have not realized this benefit. I’m still experiencing the peanut butter jar episodes the original poster alluded to. Very frustrating.

Tough to know anything without some idea of your diet. Offhand, I’d say that you really need other fiber in there from various fruits and veggies as well as just RS, especially if taking in in the pure supplemental form.

That’s why I’m so puzzled. Mostly paleo diet, no wheat/grains etc.; no dairy since I’m lactose intolerant. I get plenty of vegetables (although I guess this is subjective, but large salad every night, broccoli/bell peppers/onions/other stuff with dinners), not much fruit, and take 3-4 tbsp of potato starch each day. Still working toward the no-wipe holy grail… Love the site by the way.

I’ve been on PS + psyllium + Amazing Grass for several months now and decided to add Prescript Assist into the mix because of your success in clearing up your sinus headaches, Richard. I’ve had chronic sinusitis for years with a bad headache once or twice a week. It’s never been treated with abx (my doctor thinks that because I don’t have green mucus, I don’t have an infection).

I started adding PA to my PS/psyllium etc. mix at 1/3 capsule per day for three days, 2/3 capsule for the next six days and then 1 capsule/day for two days. For those 11 days I had a headache every day bar a couple at the low dose and one day even woke up with a headache (going to sleep usually gets rid of them).

I’ve stopped the PA now but I was wondering what other people’s experience with Prescript Assist has been with their sinusitis. Did anybody’s get worse before it got better? This is the worst run of it I’ve ever had.

I’ve read that some people add Prescript Assist into the wash for their nasal irrigation (the type where you put water up your nose and it goes up through your sinuses and out the other nostril. The ‘official’ instructions for nasal irrigation are to keep everything sterile because there have been a couple of deaths caused by using tapwater contaminated with an amoeba that can travel from the nose to the brain. I’m wondering how safe it is to use probiotics in nasal irrigation.

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Kate, I use Prescript Assist and AOR-3, but I have to tell you, I am horrified at the idea of using soil-based organisms in a nasal irrigation! (Of course, what do I know? But the idea of introducing an organism that might travel from the nose to the brain kind of freaks me out.)

Have you tried irrigating with Xlear (it has xylitol) or irrigating with Sovereign colloidal silver?

Also, I have fantastic results of sinus clearing with acupuncture. I can feel the stuff breaking up and draining within minutes.

Thanks, Ellen – I’ve been doing a lot of googling today and came across colloidal silver so I’ll have a better look. I’ve got some Xlear on the way. I’m also horrified at the idea of shoving bacteria up my nose to say hello to my brain but some people refer to their doctors recommending it, which amazed me. But presumably there’s a whole microbiome in our sinuses? I don’t know what to think but I’m too much of a scaredy-cat to try it. Just wondering if anyone else has has the experience of their sinusitis getting worse at first with Prescript Assist before getting better.

I don’t know if it’s repairable or not, it seems like it does permanent damage to the gut lining, causing bulges that can get infected. Whether one can coexist peacefully with it I don’t know. I know they always tell people with this condition to not eat fiber.

I was thinking that, too. I guess the real question is, at what point is an intestine irreversibly jacked? Certainly once it’s surgically removed, but what about things like ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s, and diverticules? I have no idea how much abuse a colon can take before diet/probiotics are no longer enough to cure it.

My husband has seen great improvement in Diverticulitis since starting PS, Prescript Assist and Primal defense. He knocked down one particularly pernicious attack about 6 weeks ago by throwing out the antibiotics that were making him worse and doubling down on RS/SBO. It also took care of a nasty ear infection, so I believe there’s hope for Diverticulitis sufferers.

Diverticula are anatomical. I don’t think herniations in the wall of the colon can revert to normal. Like any other hernias in the body which require surgical repair…. But definitely, soluble fiber which increases mucous production in the colon would have a major lubricating effect. Fecal matter would just slide along and not block the diverticula, thereby preventing the diverticulitis (inflammation) of these pouches. Whatever it takes, people need to do it. It’s got to be lifelong and consistent though because as soon as it is stopped and the colon ‘dries’ because of lack of mucous, the problem will recur. (I’m not a GI specialist that’s for sure, but it makes sense to keep doing what works.)

Mom didn’t have to take any insulin yesterday either, so 2 days in a row. 2 hr post prandial after steak and lobster last night was 136.

FBG was 126 this morning. Before PS and recently the Amla, she had 180-190 FBG, while on daily insulin.

She still eats very LC, so I’m wondering whether the 126 is more physiological IR than diabetic IR. So, I’ve suggested that she begin adding a half cup of starch to each meal as cooked and cooled rice, beans or potatoes, and see what happens. Remember, VLC PIR can be self fulfilling where any starches give you a huge spike, in the same way that if you are a couch potato and go out and run 3 miles. You’ll get a massive spike in heart rate whereas, once you are conditioned, you’ll get just normal elevation.

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@Richard — the positive reports by diabetics continues to intrigue me. Thanks so much for posting your mom’s story. Do you think it might be helpful for your mom to also test at the 3 hour point to see if the lowered readings are real or simply caused by a delay in post prandial high point from the RS? In other words, could the resistant starch fiber be delaying gastric emptying and are there thoughts on whether it would be helpful to test at both the 2 hour and 3 hour point to be sure the lowered readings are real. Her 60 point drop in fasting glucose is amazing. Maybe when she goes for her next check-up with her diabetes doc, he will test her fasting insulin. The question of how rs may be impacting insulin levels nags at me.

Have a care… those who – like me, and sounds like your mom – have reduced pancreatic function may not enjoy all of the blood sugar related benefits of PS that others have noted. PS for the last 8 months has had very little impact on my ability to handle a modest amount of carb foods, re post prandial and fasting glucose.

It’s been a week or so since I started washing own a capsule of PrescriptAssist with the daily potato starch in water, and strange things are happening. I’m a type 1 diabetic and I seem to need less insulin. Fasting blood sugars are not consistently lower, though they’re reasonably low more often than usual. The before-meal insulin shots seem too large — more insulin sensitivity?

Some unexpected species in those capsules. Nitrogen fixers? Producers of once-popular antibiotics?

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Last week I was taking Primal Defense Ultra twice a day. I had the strangest symptom. I was totally high like I had smoked some pot. I stopped taking the supplement on Tuesday, and the feeling went away. Today I started taking the supplement again and it came back. I don’t consume PS, but I do eat rice, beans, and potatoes instead per Tatertot’s suggestion. Why am I getting high?

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gabkad – ha ha – no there is nothing wrong with feeling high. Unfortunately this high was not very pleasant. I was just wondering if the metabolism of the bacteria in my gut were producing a chemical that was affecting my mental state, and if anyone has every experienced what I was feeling.

Tim, apologies if this has been discussed elsewhere — does marijuana have either a positive or negative effect on efforts to create/maintain a healthy gut biome? There are so many medical marijuana users now, and I expect a number of people who are actually using it for real medical issues would be attracted to gut-improvement protocols. (Well, heck, who wouldn’t be?)

Basically what I was able to extract from the article – Researchers understand that the condition of obesity is evident by a different gut biome vs. normal weight bodies. The purpose of the study was to find out how the gut microbiota interact with the eCB system (Endocannabinoid System is located in the brain affects appetite in the body) to affect obesity. The data from the study connects microbes , eCB, and fat growth They did not say if the mice were high from the added microbes.

Has anyone ever mentioned liver pain when staring PS? I have a friend who just started taking a small amount of Bobs RM daily and reported a 10 pound weight gain, bloating, and liver pain. She had IV antibiotics after a stroke and severe infection of some sort in the hospital last October. I told her to stop the PS, see how she feels in a few days, then try SBOs and add PS or one of the other RS sources like banana and tapioca down the road.
*and to read everything she could, comments and all on FTA*
I think my good reaction to PS right out the gate was due to having some good bacteria in my gut, in spite of the odds. My friend is probably feeding caged vipers, to quote Gabriella or Dr BG *can’t remember who said it but it is apt comparison, fo sho*

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I have an annual physical scheduled for next month and I am interested to see my bloodwork as I have been improving my diet over the last several months and taking PS and PDU, AOR3, and PA probiotics. Lost ~ 15 lbs and gut has flattened quite a bit. Still don’t have a washboard, but I’m still progressing. However…
I know my doc will want me to do the endoscopy with the gut wash and all that entails. I’ve been working on my micro-biome for a while now and I dont

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continued…want to washit it out and mess it up.
Should I prepare my own fecal transplant for after the endoscopy (as the referenced article and videos teach) or should I just refuse to do the scope? I’m in pretty good health, better since I gave up wheat a few years ago and sugar early this year. I’m anxious to see my blood work since I eat lots of raw veggies and some cooked, fish, liver and other good stuff like cooked/cooled rice, beans and potatoes, and fruit. My Dr recommends the scope at 50, and my time has come. My wife had it 2 years ago and she’ll be mad if I don’t do mine (not sure if its because she’s concerned about my health or just because she had to do it…) I’d appreciate thoughts from the FTA illuminati…

Gassman, I had the exact same concerns, and I thank you for thinking of asking the question here. Gabriella, I thank you for linking a study I never dreamed existed. Awesome.

Gassman, I recently had my bloodwork done. We sound similar in approach, but if might supplement more. I do amla berry too, discussed by Richard, but I learned of it independently. My doc was ready to put me on statins if I did not improve. My numbers moved to significantly better than “optimal” in every category. Good luck.

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I’m waiting for French suppository technologists to develop a “faecally optimised” supp. Then colonospy specialists will be able to provide the after-service of your own faecal replacement therapy (FaRT). Just wait till ex-Governator hears of this – $ 10,000 per sample.
“I have a Dream, a vivid Dream.”

Sláinte

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I just started RS 1 tbsp with my yoghurt, although I’m wondering do the bacteries ferment the resistent starch and I get less in since I eat it that way. I had it only a few days, I also take probiotics and L-glutamine, not sure if its a good idea to do that too, but I noticed that I do have these vivid, lucid dreams more than normal (I have them without RS a lot too), but I also noticed that after RS I my poop shifts from type 2 to type 4, they say type 4 is perfect, but it feels wierd having something close to runs… I’m reluctant to up my RS, but its only a few days so far so maybe I need to get used to it. I wonder does anyone have something like that? What are the symptoms that show that RS is not for you?

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“Results compared the microbes on the hands of women in the U.S. and Tanzania and found that organisms that have commonly been identified in prior human skin microbiome studies were highly abundant on U.S. hands, while the most abundant bacterial species on Tanzanian hands were associated with the environment, PARTICULARLY SOIL.”

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the hazda tribe from africa are one of the only hunter gatherers left on the planet,.they just analized their poop and found they had the best microbiota with some bacteria in their feces that has never been documented,,it wont be long until the hazda’s will be hanging out on street corners selling you some good shit man,,,lol,,,and it aint going to be drugs…lol…….

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Hi Jen, that was me asking about sinusitis. I’ve had a really sore mouth since taking the Prescript Assist – I took it for ten days but now I’ve stopped. As ever, I don’t know whether the ill effects were a coincidence or a ‘get worse before you get better’ thing. My sinuses are the same.

So, in the spirit of this post, here’s a random question. I understand the process of extracting resistant starch from potatoes…when the RS is removed, what is left? Is it digestible starch?, is it a concentrated source of the vitamins/minerals found in potatoes?, is it nutritious or waste?

FYI – I have also found RS to be AMAZING – can’t wait for the book to come out.

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The remnants of potato starch industry are used for high protein animal feed, but not human as it can contain solanine and other somewhat harmful chemicals normally found in potatoes. The starch extraction process is done with lots of water, all of the harmful chemicals seem to be water soluble. The concentrations of these chemicals in the protein waste is higher than allowed for human food, otherwise I suspect you’d see ‘potato protein’ supplements alongside whey protein and egg whites.

…My landlady is a native of the “emerald isle,” and she fancied that the Irish fruit, which forms so valuable an addition to our culinary stores, should always be brought to table in their natural covering. Her husband preferred having his potatoes pared previous to boiling; and having procured for a Sunday’s dinner, a shoulder of mutton, and the roots in question, he clandestinely bribed the maid servant to peel the potatoes before they were dressed, in direct contravention of the express general orders, which the girl had received from her mistress on that subject.

No sooner had Mrs. C , sat down to dinner, than taking the cover from the vegetables, and perceiving the manner in which they had been cooked, she declared they were spoilt; and calling the maid, she told her she should pay for the potatoes which she had ruined in dressing, at the same time threatening to turn her away, if she offended again in the same manner. Molly, having been bribed by her master, had too much honor to betray the secret of his interference with her culinary operations, but, on receiving Mrs. C ‘s reproof, she could not help casting a side-glance at him, which roused his wife’s suspicions. These were strengthened almost to certainty, by his saying, after the girl had left the room, “Upon my word, my dear, nobody ever thinks of eating potatoes with their skins.”

“That is no reason why they may not be boiled in thom,” replied she; adding, “I suppose you don’t know potatoes from turnips, or you would not want to have them pared.”

Nettled at this inuendo, Mr. C , thoughtlessly said, ” I am sure that potatoes boiled without paring are only fit for hogs.”

Mrs. C , fired at this sarcasm, and gently laying down her knife and fork, exclaimed, ” I’ll teach you to call me a hog, you brute.” At the same moment, before he was aware of her design, she seized the dish of potatoes, and discharged them full in his face. They were rather overdone, so as to be in part reduced to the thickness of a poultice; and he was blinded by the unexpected explosion, which took full effect.

Jumping up suddenly, he overturned the table, with a tureen of hot broth, which not only utterly ruined Mrs. C’s best silk gown, (in which she had that morning been at church,) but also scalded her severely.

She snatched one of the plates, and her husband looking on the movement as an overture to another volley of missiles, stepped up and laid hold of her arms. The crash of the falling table, and the screams of the exasperated lady, brought into the room neighbours as well as lodgers; on whose appearance, Mrs. C, thought an exhibition of hysterics, the most decent expedient she could adopt, and she accordingly forthwith had recourse to it.

If someone can get him to enhance his routine with a few tablespoons of PS, some daily soil probiotics, and a daily dose of fermented veggies, I bet he could live to 150 without any problems and become a card carrying member of the FTA Hall of Fame.

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Kenny,
I’m sure you’d prefer an answer from someone who actually knows something, but it’s my understanding, that there are beneficial fungus’s in Kombucha and Tibicos (water kefir), though perhaps their main virtue is that they work in tandem with the healthy bacteria, in a symbiotic relationship. Hopefully some of the very knowledgeable folks here will give us some more info because I often wonder if it is really a good idea to be consuming flora that feeds mainly on sugar . I do find that water kefir in my starch smoothies has been really helpful for my tmi and skin issues.
Also, it’s much cheaper than the Perscript Assist, Primal Defense etc. (I did take those supplements at first for about 3 months). If you give it what it likes, it grows and multiplies quickly and it’s hard to figure what to do with the extra’s. My daughter actually feeds a small amount of water kefir grains to her children each day (as well as the drink) and it has helped with some of their food sensitivities. Other people put the grains in their pets food and see noticeable health improvements.
So do we benefit from the fungus or from the bacteria that the fungus feed?

Here is a list of the different strains of bacteria and yeast that are commonly found in water kefir. Some of these are the same as one’s listed on the bottles of SBO supplements that we pay so much for.

Well, like I said, I don’t know much. I see that there are not the same strains in the bottles of SBO’s as there are on the list above. I copied the first list of most common water kefir strains which I came across. but apparently water kefir can have some 450 different strains and one of them is Saccharomyces Boulardi, which is also in Primal Defense Ultra. The ad copy says ” The Saccharomyces Boulardii in Primal Defense Ultra nourishes intestinal mucosa cells to support the normal barrier function of the intestinal epithelium, the front line for the body’s defense system.”
Also, he article linked below says the S. Boulardii also fights and replaces Candida in the gut;commonsensehome.com/water-kefir-versus-kombucha/

If that is true then S. Boulardii is one type of “good” yeast, to partially answer Kenny’s question.

Once we’ve taken a few pills AND are regularly consuming prebiotics to feed our critters, won’t they multiply naturally? IOW, it seems unecessary to continue to ingest the same species if they’re already installed, so to speak. I gather some species don’t linger but was under the impression others do…is that not correct? Thanks for any insight, it does get a tad complicated. Good thing there’s a book coming soon! :)

My take is that since in nature you’d be getting them regularly, that’s what I intend to do. To keep the cost minimal, I take one cap of one brand each day and rotate through. So, the three bottles should last about six months and you’re getting regular dosing of each of them.

Seriously, we need a high profile feces donor to help a failed Paleo low carb zealot repopulate their gut flora. Lots of RS and close monitoring over a few weeks in a controlled environment supervised by medical professionals. Document the results, write a book and sell the flora.

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Richard, I suspect you are the inflamed thorn in the sides of many LC experts who enjoy believing they already know everything there is to know. I can just see the handful of them now, folding their arms, pouting, and bemoaning the unfairness of the universe for allowing someone to get so much attention from advocating for consumption of anything involving the word “starch” — while the rest (the majority, I’m sure) are pretending you don’t exist so that they don’t have to confront the controversy rudely marring their previously dominant dietary dogma.

Keep shouting from the rooftops, brother. Thank you for sticking your neck out there and confronting us with information we originally did not want to hear, but certainly needed to hear.

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You’re right, and I did not mean for my post to come across as a downer. I see people waking up to the RS & SS topics left and right — I am just amused that some of the anointed elders still have their heads in the sand and are getting their feathers ruffled up over this.

I suspect they will eventually come around as well. But if not, it is their loss.

Well, I am done with SuperStarch debunking and so I can turn my attention to more interesting things:

Is there anything significant after all in the blood type? Could intestinal alkaline phosphatase be the culprit?

Here Dr. D’Adamo says “that the blod type determines the levels of an enzyme in their intestines called ‘intestinal alkaline phosphatase’ (IAP). This enzyme performs two very important functions in the body. First, IAP splits dietary cholesterol into smaller fragments, allowing for their proper breakdown. Second, IAP enhances the absorption of calcium from the diet. (…) In addition to these two critical functions IAP is an important influence on the ability of the digestive tract to heal.”dadamo.com/B2blogs/blogs/index.php/2010/03/10/intestinal-alkaline-phosphatase-where-bl?blog=24

i cannot find SBO”S in canada as i was told that they are not approved for sale,prescript assit,aor 3 ,,,,,aor 3 was available but my supplement retailer says he cant get it no more,,when i try ordering from the U.S. at check-out it says not available for export to canada,,my naturopath advised me not to take prescript assist,,has anybody else ran into this
in canada “”eh””

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My only point is that there are a lot of Chinese knockoffs, and since it’s supposedly not approved for Canada, I’d want to do an inquiry with the actual makers to verify it’s actually their product getting to these outlets.

Been reading about natural sources of RS2 and I figured out how Asians get a lot of their RS2.

Dioscorea opposite, also known as Nagaimo, Japanese Mountain yam, Chinese yam, and Korean yam. It is often used in the Japanese noodle dish tororo udon/soba and as a binding agent in the batter of okonomiyaki. The grated raw nagaimo is known as tororo (in Japanese). In tororo udon/soba, the tororo is mixed with other ingredients that typically include tsuyu broth (dashi), wasabi, and green onions. Also eaten in China, Japan, Vietnam, Korea and the Philippines.

This Asian tuber is usually consumed raw with traditional preparation. Actually it’s one of the few yams that can be safely eaten raw. Mark Sisson even mentioned them in a post about yams awhile back.

A raw potato is rather toxic and only 15% RS2, so if you’re keeping score, at 33.9% RS2 these raw Asian yams are one of the richest sources of RS2 on the planet! And Asians usually eat them raw, grated as a garnish or on a salad.

From wiki:
“The jelly-like substance made from grating the yam, tororojiru (Japanese: とろろ汁), is often served in, or alongside, a number of other dishes. However, during the Edo period, tororojiru was also widely used as a personal lubricant for sexual activities,[1] and it was thus considered improper for it to be eaten by a woman. This aversion also derives from the loud slurping sound one makes when eating it, which was considered to be un-ladylike.”

Off topic, I am not sure if you have addressed this. But perhaps you are interested to put your curious nose into it: AMY1 genetic “variations” in supposedly “low starch” eating populations, effects of α-amylase (both salivary and pancreatic) on starch digestion (and satiation level). Does alpha amylase digest the glycogen in meat (aka animal starch) as well? Any info on it?

Supplementary table with the data (link in the full article):
Diet and the evolution of human amylase gene copy number variation

Some more reading about amylase
Human α-amylase and starch digestion: An interesting marriage

Like amylopectin, glycogen is a polymer of D-glucose but the ratio of branched α1-6 linkages to linear α1-4 linkages is twice that of amylopectin. Thus glycolgen is susceptible to hydrolysis by the same enzymes as the starch polymers. Studies suggest that purified animal glycogen is digested at a similar rate to that of purified short chain rice starches (Azad and Lebenthal 1990). However as in the case of plant starches, the rate of digestion may be lower when glycogen granules are contained in intact tissue owing to the physical effects of their structural organization.

Glycemic starch has a lot of alpha (α) bonds, or “alpha-glycosidic linkages,” that are digestible. Whereas resistant starch and fibers like cellulose have beta (β) glycosidic bonds that are very difficult to digest.

I could be wrong, but I think one’s salivary and pancreatic variations are completely different. For instance, I think domesticated dogs don’t have any (or many) salivary copies, but they do tend to have a fair amount of pancreatic copies (likely evolving off of HG starches).

And truthfully this makes sense since dogs (and other carnivores) don’t really chew their food. Their jaws are literally made to “wolf” down food in giant gulps.

Sorry, I forgot to include the links and the site was down or what later on.

Here the links including my speculations. Chew on it or forget it, it is up to you.

The original study from 2007, by Perry et al, claiming to find more AMY1 gene copies in high starch popolations, which was parroted ever since and used even as an argument that for instance your beloved Inuits are not able to digest starch, because they must be low in AMY. (The number of study participants was quite low, and no, Inuit were not mentioned).

Problem no 1: Although there are more people with high copy number for AMY1 among Japanese or Hadza group (those in the study), what do the data on the whole show? Do the populations with “high-starch” diets have on average more AMY1 copies than those with traditionally low-starch diets? To me, the data show rather individual variances within each group. Just by looking at the data, we get the mean, highest and lowest numbers like this (handpicked from the supp tables):

Why are some people from “high” starch group so low in copy number, the same low as chimps which have 2 copies? Why is that?

Problem no 2: What does the CNV (copy number variation) mean? Why does it happen? Is it a hard DNA encoding or rather epigenetic shift reflecting the current environment, the current diet and human and bacteria symbiosis?

What if people low in AMY1 get fat, because they eat too much when eating starch, because they do not get the satiation signalling after eating starch, because they get too little maltose in the first digestion phase, because they have too little of good bugs.

What if symbiotic bacteria (eaten together with your starch) upregulate salivary amylase, to be able to hide in the starch granule and eat it, metabolising into maltose first, which serves as a satiation signal to the brain via cholecystokinin and other hormones. Comments on satiation by me here:freetheanimal.com/2013/12/resistant-primer-newbies.html#comment-611256

And the gem of gems (from 1993 though)
The Remarkable Evolutionary History of the Human Amylase Genescro.sagepub.com/content/4/3/503.full.pdf
“Analysis of the structures of the human amylase genes has demonstrated that this
multigene family contains at least five tandem gene copies, closely related in sequence but with distinct tissue specific expression. The structures of the genes demonstrate that the human salivary amylase gene was derived from a preexisting pancreatic amylase gene.”

Here it is explained even better:
On the concept and elucidation of endogenous retroviruses
Endogenous retroviruses that are useful to their hostsrstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/368/1626/20120494.full#sec-8
“ERV can be put to physiological use by their hosts, either at the gene regulatory level or as proteins. Tissue-specific enhancers in the ERV LTR are an example of transcriptional control. All mammals express amylase in the pancreas, but rodents and Old World primates also express amylase in salivary glands. In both the cases, ERV elements play a role in salivary expression in remarkably convergent evolution. The activation of salivary amylase in the human parotid gland is controlled by a retroviral insertion, which occurred during Old World primate evolution [54]. Then gene triplication of the amylase gene and its LTR enhancer to further enhance amylase secretion occurred after hominids split from chimpanzees. It may have provided selective advantage to the hominid lineage when, like rodents, they adopted a diet containing complex carbohydrates.”

I love when someone starts answering my questions even before I could have asked them:

The Effect of Salivary Amylase Gene Copy Number on Gut Microbiota Composition and Function (at ASM 2014)abstractsonline.com/Plan/ViewAbstract.aspx?sKey=9402eb10-2dd0-40e1-8146-6a164178d074&cKey=0528f…
“Starch digestion is initiated in the mouth by salivary amylase, which is encoded by AMY1. The diploid gene copy number (CN) of AMY1 varies between 2 to 15. Populations consuming a diet high in starch have a higher AMY1 CN on average than populations consuming lower amounts of starch. A number of gut microbes produce amylases and can perform starch breakdown as well, producing short chain fatty acids (SCFAs.) The capability of both host and gut microbes to utilize the same substrate raises the following questions: Is the human host competing with gut bacteria for dietary amylose? If the host produces less salivary amylase, does the gut microbiota respond with an increase in microbial amylase copy number or activity?
[… ]
Using a bivariate model on the sequence dataset, we found that the mean abundances of Faecalibacterium, Coprococcus, Bacteroides, and Blautia, which all ferment carbohydrates, are significantly enriched in low AMY1 CN subjects. Using a sparse linear discriminant analysis model, we also identified seven microbes that are sufficient to differentiate the high and low AMY1 CN groups. These seven include three of the aforementioned bacteria that were identified in the bivariate model as well as Roseburia, another starch-fermenting microbe. These results represent the first time that human copy number variation has been linked to gut microbiota composition, and furthermore, they highlight how human genetic adaptation to dietary change also involves modification of the gut microbiota. “

Pursuing the origin of salivary alpha-amylase enzyme gene in humans and learning that its tissue specificity (e. i. that human parotid glands can produce amylase, which initiates starch digestion in the mouth) was encoded in human DNA thanks to a ŕetrovirus, I finally arrived to the ideas of Carle Woese, evolutionary microbiologist, who died in 2012. He revolutionised the science of evolution even more than Darwin did. Horizontal (or sometimes called lateral) gene transfer (swapping genes between species and kingdoms) is the driver of evolutionary dynamics.

Some of his words:

“Our task now is to synthesise biology; put the organism back into its environment; connect it again to its evolutionary past; and let us feel that complex flow that is organism, evolution, and environment united. The time has come for biology to enter the nonlinear world.”

“If microbial life were to disappear, that would be it — instant death for the planet”

Hello FTA team! Just needed to tell you what you knew would happen…. After two months of experimenting with plantain flour, Prescript Assist, Primal Defence, Kefir, small and increasing small doses of Potato starch, 2 Kilo of Kim Chi (5 pounds), parboiled rice eaten the next day, homemade (overnight soaked) pinto beans…. I have been able to eat potatoes for the first time in at least 8 years. MIRACLE. Reaction? Small twinge of pain in my elbows about 30 minutes after eating. Then stiffness in my fingers. Then it all dissipated. Lasted about 30 minutes total. That’s it. No agony, no whole hip joints swollen and inflamed. No crying. No emotional craziness. No heat. No pains all over the body. No other joint pains. Just a small blip of trouble. Not that potatoes are “important” but it is so difficult to have immune systems reactions to foods.

*****Thank you all for the research and support*****

I will soon start to “experiment” with my husband. He is type one diabetic with another, recently acquired, auto immune disease (Sarcoidosis).

Another HUGE THANK YOU to Richard Nikoley for recommending Moises Velasquez-Manoff’s book. WOW. Best, most dramatic book I have ever read. Every three pages, I am stunned by what he has to say. I thought I had a lot of things in life figured out, until I read this book.

I still have troubles with certain things. Sometimes I feel strange if I have PS straight, I do better if I have it with plantain flour. Also, some fermented foods cause trouble. It might be like the above poster who said it gave them a “high” but not a nice high. I would suggest that anything that causes a problem, should be temporarily limited and other things should be improved.

Thanks again! Seriously.

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24 hours after having potatoes, I have had a minor reaction – some pain in right hip and mild depression. So, after two months of SBO probiotics, RS, etc., I have reduced my symptoms by 75%. Not bad! Normal reaction is bi-lateral, multiple joints and severe.

Besides, I did have a second feeding of potatoes (roasted and cooled) this morning. So, I was a little greedy. I will keep up with the regime and re-test potatoes in a few weeks.

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I'm Richard Nikoley. Free the Animal began in 2003 and as of 2018, contains over 4,600 posts and 110,000 comments from readers. I cover a lot of ground, blogging what I wish...from health, diet, and lifestyle to philosophy, politics, social issues, and cryptocurrency. I celebrate the audacity and hubris to live by your own exclusive authority and take your own chances in life. [Read more...]

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